Guillermo del Toro (upcoming The Hobbit) is developing Pinocchio as a stop-motion feature with the Jim Henson Co. as a darker version of the original fairy tale.
The project will be produced by JHC co-toppers Brian Henson and Lisa Henson along with senior VP Jason Lust. Del Toro will executive produce.
Del Toro's working on the screenplay with Gris Grimley, who illustrated a 2002 version of "Pinocchio." Grimley and Adam Parrish King will co-direct the film.
USA Network has picked up the eighth, and what will be the final season of "Monk," reports Variety.
USA announced its pick-up of an eighth and final season of Monk, to debut in the summer of 2009. The OCDetective series, fronted by three-time Emmy winner Tony Shalhoub, will say goodbye with a 16-episode run.
"We want to build to a spectacular conclusion for this wonderful show," USA Network's executive vice president of original programming, Jeff Wachtel, said in making the announcement. " By many measures, Monk is the most successful series in the history of basic cable.... Our fans have been extremely dedicated, and Season 8 should prove to be a very satisfying reward."
The cable channel has ordered 16 episodes of the series, an early prodiginator of its "Characters Welcome" brand of original series, with a premiere scheduled for next summer.
With the earlier renewals of "Psych," "Burn Notice" and "In Plain Site," USA has now re-upped all of its established originals.
Starring Tony Shalhoub, a three-time Emmy winner for his role as a brilliant detective who suffers from obsessive-compulsive disorder, "Monk's" seventh season earlier this year scored average ratings increases over season six in adults 18-49 (up 13%) and total viewers (up 20%).
"Monk" is executive produced by David Hoberman, Andy Breckman, Randy Zisk, Tom Scharpling and Shalhoub.
Two of this fall TV season's bubble shows are starting to slide off the fence to stand on firm ground, while another holds out hope for a last-minute reprieve.
Gary Unmarried, which as I pointed out in our Save 'Em or Shelve 'Em bubble shows round-up has held if not often built on Old Christine's audience, has been awarded a full-season pick-up by CBS.
The Eye's other freshman laffer, Worst Week, didn't secure its own "back nine" just yet, but did get an order for three additional episodes.
Over at ABC, though Pushing Daisies on Thursday night wrapped production on the 13th and final ordered episode of its second season, series creator Bryan Fuller is holding out hope that Stephen McPherson will "touch" the acclaimed series back to life. "Our ABC exec was on the set last night saying they are still swinging in the fight to keep Daisies on the air," Fuller tells the Reporter. "Spirits are high and hopeful and everyone here is very proud of our work and this show."
The trailer for writer/director Wayne Kramer's Crossing Over. Opening in theaters on December 3, the drama stars Harrison Ford, Jim Sturgess, Ashley Judd, Alicia Braga, Alice Eve and Ray Liotta.
Immigrants from around the world enter Los Angeles every day, with hopeful visions of a better life, but little notion of what that life may cost. Their desperate scenarios test the humanity of immigration enforcement officers. In Crossing Over, Kramer explores the allure of the American dream, and the reality that immigrants find – and create -- in 21st century L.A.
Release Date: December 3, 2008
Nintendo's system outsells Xbox 360, PlayStation 3 and PSP combined.
Sales of Nintendo's little white console were off the charts in October, according to new data released by the NPD Group. Wii sold 803,000 units for the month, singlehandedly outselling Xbox 360, PlayStation 3 and PSP combined. Microsoft's console sold through 371,000 units; PS3 190,000 and PSP 193,000. PS2, meanwhile, picked up another 136,000 players.
"The greater supply of Wii hardware at retail is evident in the sales figures for the month with the Wii enjoying its best sales month outside of last November and December," said analyst Anita Frazier.
The games industry as a whole grew 18 percent year-over-year in October and is still poised to top $22 billion in annual sales through the end of the year, ignoring all signs of a recession.
The top-selling Wii game in October was, again, Wii Fit, with 487,000 units sold. Mario Kart Wii sold 290,000 copies and Wii Play picked up another 282,000 converts. The top-seller for the month, however, was Fable II, with a massive 790,000 copies sold during the month.
The top three best-selling Wii games demonstrate the unprecedentedly long shelf life that some software enjoys on Nintendo's system. Not only has Wii Play, packed with a remote, sold upward of 7.2 million copies in America, but a quick glance at Wii Fit's sales progress would show an increase in momentum as the months have passed, virtually unheard of.
"There is no way for us to know for sure how long consumers will respond at this current level to Wii Fit," said NOA's VP of corporate affairs, Denise Kaigler. "We are certainly very pleased to see more and more consumers continuing to 'discover' Wii Fit and hearing stories about how they then talk to their friends and family about it. There is no doubt that word of mouth is helping to fuel the continued popularity of the game."
Wii Fit has sold more than 2.8 million copies since its release in May and remains one of the few games whose sales numbers have actually increased in some months since its release. If this momentum keeps up, some analysts have projected that the $89 title could ultimately outsell games like Grand Theft Auto 4 by the end of 2009 on its way to becoming one of the best-selling so-called games this generation.
Continued high sales of games like Wii Fit, Wii Play and Mario Kart Wii, all of which incidentally ship with some kind of attachment or peripheral, illustrate a very different business model for Nintendo, one more in common with a manufacturer of a DVD-player than a videogame machine. Whereas new videogames fall out of fashion within weeks, the back-catalog for Hollywood movies is forever flourishing -- a truth that has left more than a few videogame publishers envious. With its mass-consumerism approach, Nintendo seems to be enjoying the fruits traditionally reserved for Hollywood studios.
Paramount has hired Quantum of Solace director Marc Forster to helm World War Z, the big screen adaptation of Max Brooks bestselling novel World War Z: An Oral History of the Zombie War. The 352 page book chronicles the aftermath of a great zombie-human war.
Changeling scribe J Michael Straczynski penned the screenplay, which AICN once called “a horror epic, a serious, sober-minded adult picture”, potentially “a genre-defining piece of work” with Best Picture potential (really?!). The basic premise of the book is that it is an oral history of the zombie war, compiled by an unnamed government employee. The movie follows this researcher, named Gerry Lane (possibly to be played by Brad Pitt, who is producing the project), as he travels the world conducting interviews with survivors, 10-years later. Forster told Variety that the story reminded him of “the paranoid conspiracy films of the ’70s like ‘All the President’s Men.”
The book was released in 2006, and is available on Amazon for $16.47. I’ve included the official plot description from the book below:
Ranging from the now infamous village of New Dachang in the United Federation of China, where the epidemiological trail began with the twelve-year-old Patient Zero, to the unnamed northern forests where untold numbers sought a terrible and temporary refuge in the cold, to the United States of Southern Africa, where the Redeker Plan provided hope for humanity at an unspeakable price, to the west-of-the-Rockies redoubt where the North American tide finally started to turn, this invaluable chronicle reflects the full scope and duration of the Zombie War.
Most of all, the book captures with haunting immediacy the human dimension of this epochal event. Facing the often raw and vivid nature of these personal accounts requires a degree of courage on the part of the reader, but the effort is invaluable because, as Mr. Brooks says in his introduction, “By excluding the human factor, aren’t we risking the kind of personal detachment from history that may, heaven forbid, lead us one day to repeat it? And in the end, isn’t the human factor the only true difference between us and the enemy we now refer to as ‘the living dead’?”
New Regency has acquired rights to "The End of Eternity," an Isaac Asimov time travel novel first published in 1955, reports Variety. Regency will take the book out to directors before a writer is hired.
The Asimov novel is a futuristic tale in which humanity is controlled by a ruling class called Eternity, members of which can manipulate time to alter history and prevent disasters or wipe out undesirables. One of the time cops flirts with disaster when he breaks the cardinal Eternity rule and falls in love with a woman from another time period.
The film will be produced by Vince Gerardis, with Eli Kirschner executive producing.
Walt Disney Pictures has hired screenwriter Colin Trevorrow to adapt the graphic novel "Pet Robots" by Scott Christian Sava as a high-tech comedy about four students who get lost on a field trip at a toy company and bond with four military robots.
Benderspink's Chris Bender and JC Spink will produce the project.
Sava's Blue Dream Studios published "Pet Robots" last year. He's also worked on "Spider-Man," "Casper the Friendly Ghost," "Alien vs. Predator" and "X-Men" as an illustrator, comic book artist, animator and video game designer.
Hilary Duff is returning to TV, signing a deal with NBC to star in a new series, reports Variety.
Under terms of the one-year talent and development deal, the network will develop a show starring Duff; the actress will also be tapped to guest star in various current NBC shows.
The Duff series would be produced by Universal Media Studios. The deal was announced by NBC Entertainment/ Universal Media Studios co-chairman Ben Silverman.
Duff will meet with writers and comb through NBC's development for the right project to star in.
Duff first rose to fame as the star of the Disney Channel's "Lizzie McGuire" (which later spawned The Lizzie McGuire Movie).
NBC has pulled the plug on freshman tentpole drama "My Own Worst Enemy" and returning sophomore series "Lipstick Jungle," says The Hollywood Reporter.
The cancellations come after both shows dropped to new ratings lows in recent weeks, with the Christian Slater action series sinking to a 1.8 among adults 18-49 (4.3 million viewers) on Monday and "Jungle" falling to a 1.2 (3.3 million viewers) on Friday.
"Enemy" is now shooting its ninth -- and final -- episode. "Lipstick" has shot all 13 of its initial order. Both are produced by Universal Media Studios.
llumination Entertainment topper Chris Meledandri has kicked off his Universal Pictures-based family film unit with Despicable Me, a 3-D CG-animated film that has Steve Carell voicing the title character, says Variety.
Jason Segel, Kristen Wiig, Will Arnett, Danny McBride, Russell Brand, Jemaine Clement ("Flight of the Conchords"), Jack McBrayer ("30 Rock") and Julie Andrews are providing the other lead voices. The film will be released in 2010.
Carell's title character is a deplorable man known as Groo who masterminds the mother of all heists when he plots to steal the moon. Egged on by an evil mother (Andrews), Groo finds one obstacle in his way: a trio of orphan girls who temporarily come under his care and won't leave.
The film reteams Carell, who provided one of the voices for Dr. Seuss' Horton Hears a Who, with Meledandri, who made that animated feature as head of Fox Animation, and with "Horton" writers Cinco Paul and Ken Daurio.
Paul and Daurio wrote Despicable Me, which Meledandri will produce with Janet Healy and John Cohen. Chris Renaud and Pierre Coffin are directing from an idea hatched by co-director Sergio Pablos.
"Saturday Night Live" has added two females to its troupe on the heels of Amy Poehler's departure from the show last month, reports Variety.
Abby Elliott, the daughter of comedian Chris Elliott, has lent her voice to episodes of "King of the Hill" and ABC's upcoming "The Goode Family." She's also performed with the Upright Citizens Brigade. Chris Elliott, known for his tenure on "Late Night with David Letterman," also logged a year on "SNL" in the 1994-95 season.
Michaela Watkins has spent some time with the Groundlings and has numerous TV guest shots on her resume. Most recently she's logged three episodes of CBS' "The New Adventures of Old Christine" and an episode of Showtime's "Californication."
Showtime is developing an hourlong project from comic book icon Stan Lee that tracks the life of a gay superhero, says The Hollywood Reporter.
The project is being executive produced by Lee and the president and CEO of his Pow! Entertainment banner, Gill Champion.
The story, which focuses on an up-and-coming superhero who struggles to hide his secret identities, is based on the book "Hero" by Perry Moore.
Moore is writing the script and also executive producing along with Hunter Hill.
Want some more details about Simon Pegg and Nick Frost’s next comedy? Paul will follow the two British geeks, who after visiting Comic-Con, go on a road trip to Area 51 where they encounter a small alien named Paul, who enlists them to help him find his way home. Written by Pegg and Frost, and directed by Greg Mottola (Adventureland, Superbad).
To recap: A sci-fi road trip comedy, Simon Pegg, Nick Frost, Greg Mottola, an Alien, Comic Con, Area 51?! I don’t know about you guys, but I think this sounds like a winner. Filmmaker Edgar Wright is busy on Scott Pilgrim, which explains why he’s not involved as a director. Mottola is a self professed fan of Nick and Simon’s films so far, and loved the concept. Wright will executive produce. Paul will start shooting in March 2009.
Remember Sunday's night's announcement that Brett Ratner was committed to direct the Conan movie? Not so fast, says Ratner. Turns out, Millennium Films' Avi Lerner sent the announcement that Ratner was attached to the project prematurely to The Hollywood Reporter. Ratner spoke to the Los Angeles Times:
Lerner acknowledged that even though he sent out a press release announcing Ratner's involvement with the project, the deal wasn't actually done. "We still have a few obstacles," he said. "Brett is only committed if we agree on a budget, on how to do the special effects and exactly where we'd shoot the film." Lerner has a studio in Bulgaria, so he'd like to shoot most of the movie there, with some exterior work in China.
But is Ratner actually committed to doing the film? In two words: Not really. When I called him today, he sounded somewhat agitated, unhappy that news of his negotiations with Lerner had surfaced, especially since he is extremely close to getting a green light from Paramount to make "Beverly Hills Cop 4." "Let me make this very clear," he told me. "I am not doing 'Conan' now. This is totally premature. For now, 'Conan' is only a development deal. I have a deal at Paramount and I'm doing 'Beverly Hills Cop' first, no matter what. Avi shouldn't be telling you or anyone else in the press what I'm doing."
Fox confirmed Wednesday that the Saturday night sketch series "MADtv," which had barely escaped cancellation in recent years, will end its run at the end of this season.
QDE and Warner Bros. TV were behind the show, which was launched in 1995 as a competitor to "Saturday Night Live" by David Salzman and Quincy Jones. Fax Bahr and Adam Small created the comedy, but left several years ago.
John Crane, Salzman and Jones currently serve as executvie producers.
The current cast includes Arden Myrin, Bobby Lee, Crista Flanagan, Keegan-Michael Key, Nicole Parker and Johnny Sanchez.
The decision to cancel "MADtv" comes after the show failed to see a ratings boost during the recent presidential campaign (on the show, Key portrayed Barack Obama, while Lee played John McCain). Rival "SNL," meanwhile, has marked some of its best numbers in years.
Last winter, Jeffrey Tambor, the actor who played the scheming patriarch in Fox’s brilliant, underwatched and now-cancelled Arrested Development appeared on The Ron & Fez Show on XM radio, saying that there was a “real push” to get a movie version of the TV series made. Then this summer, lead actor Jason Bateman also seemed to confirmed that the wheels were in motion for the a film version of Arrested. A hefty container of water was thrown on the fire last month when Michael Cera disavowed any knowledge of such a film, and expressed doubt that Arrested fans would even want to see an Arrested movie.
Now from Collider comes the latest twist in the creation of the Arrested Development movie. Steve “Frosty” Weintraub spoke with Tambor at an event to promote Hellboy 2 and asked him if he was sick of people asking about the Arrested movie. Shockingly, Tambor responded as follows:
Well no, because we’re doing it. We are going. It’s a go. I just actually this week talked to Mitch Hurwitz, so we’re doing it.
Clearly taken aback by the positive response, Frosty pressed for details, as any Arrested fan would. After all, we’ve been through too much to have our hopes let down again. Was there a start-time? A script? Tambor, referring to Hurwitz, said:
Color me skeptical. Many things stand in the way of this movie getting made, the most significant of which seems to be getting the sprawling cast back together again, many of whom have continued on to impressive careers in TV and film. A small, dying, withered part of my soul still wants to see the gang reunited for one last redemptive chance at showing the whole movie world what a unique and fantastic phenomenon Arrested Development truly was, but until I hear something more solid, I really can’t risk being disappointed again. The constant threat (and subsequent reality) of cancellation back when the show was still on the air…That was already almost too much to bear.
X-Men Origins: Wolverine may be just a few months away from slashing its way into cinemas, but it’s taken a while for concrete developments to take place on the other X-Men prequel, X-Men Origins: Magneto, which was announced around the same time as the Hugh Jackman starrer.
However, we spoke to its producer, the doyenne of the X-films, Lauren Shuler Donner, recently, and she confirmed that it’s still in the works. “I think first we wanted to make Wolverine, and then David [Goyer, the attached director] took another film, and there wasn’t a lot of time,” she said. “But I’d like to make that – we’ll have to see.”
Details of the plot have remained vague thus far, but Shuler Donner was happy to tell us shed a little light on things. “We have a script on Magneto which is actually sort of Magneto and Charles Xavier,” she said. “It’s Erik and Charles in their early, early years.”
And, as if to further confirm that, the industry bible Production Weekly has added a synopsis for the Fox film, which suggests that Xavier “was a soldier in the allied force that liberated the concentration camps” in which Magneto is interred at the beginning of Bryan Singer’s X-Men.
“The professor meets Magneto after the war and while they bond over the realisation that they are alike in their special powers, their differences soon turn them into enemies.”
Sounds intriguing. The relationship between Xavier and Lehnsherr is one of the most successful elements of all three X-movies and, even though Patrick Stewart and Sir Ian McKellen won’t be playing the young ‘uns, we’re still hugely excited by a movie detailing their early relationship. Fingers crossed that Fox puts this on a fast track, but we suspect that Magneto’s fate will be determined by the extent of Wolverine’s success.
ComingSoon.net talked to director Guillermo del Toro about The Hobbit and its sequel last night at an event for the new Hellboy II: The Golden Army DVD.
He says they won't start the casting process until they've finished writing: "Literally, like every week, what you discover writing the two movies, writing the two stories, it changes. So, every week there's a discovery, and anything we say this week would be contradicted next week. Certainly that would be true in casting. Why create hopes or why create expectations if down the line you're going to go, 'You know what? That was not a good idea.'"
Regarding the creatures, he says there are so many more to be explored in "The Hobbit" films that were not explored in "The Lord of the Rings" trilogy. "We want to do a muscle-driven, radio-controlled suits for a couple of things. I already started that with Wink in 'Hellboy II.' Wink was pushed as far as we could within the time limits and the budget limits of the movie and we're going to take what we learned and apply it.
"Smaug is the creature in 'The Hobbit.' The way Tolkien wrote it, already, is magnificent. It's already a fantastic character. So, obviously, dragons, you ask every person what their best favorite dragon is, they will give you a different answer. In my mind, what we're going to attempt on the design of this creature and the creation of this creature needs to push the envelope beyond anything you've ever seen on that kind of creature.
"There is some stuff that has been done with dragons that I find... there are very few landmarks created for me. One of the best and one of the strongest landmarks that almost nobody can overcome is 'Dragonslayer.' The design of the Vermithrax Pejorative is perhaps one of the most perfect creature designs ever made. So, what you have to be careful is not to try to be distinctive just to be distinctive, but Smaug has certain characteristics that make him unique already. I am bursting at the seams about spilling the beans, but I won't because I would be shot."
I’ve decided to make “Worst Idea Ever” a regular feature since it appears that the Hollywood movie studios are in a never-ending race to see who can greenlight the worst of the worst ideas.
Ridley Scott is now OFFICIALLY attached to direct a big screen movie based on Hasbro’s popular board game Monopoly. Corpse Bride/Monster House scribe Pamela Pettler has been hired to write the script. Scott had been developing the project with plans to produce since June 2007.
The Hollywood Reporter claims that Scott plans to give the film “a futuristic sheen along the lines of his iconic Blade Runner,” but back in August 2007 Scott told the LA Times that it “ought to be humorous and for the family”. Scott explained that the humor will come out of the drastic changes in economic class, “particularly when your uncle suddenly gets [Park Place]” … “You watch people change. You’re witness to Jekyll and Hyde. Somewhere in that is a hysterically amusing and I think rather exciting film.”
I know that Scott’s recent filmography hasn’t been “amazing” (American Gangster is overrated), but this is the guy who directed Alien, Blade Runner and Gladiator. What is a guy of that caliber doing directing a family comedy based on a board game? Seriously!
The answer is: GI Jane. Some of you might not remember, but Ridley Scott was also behind the atrocity that was GI Jane. I’m sure that Monopoly movie will be Scott’s huge clunker of this decade.
Comedy troupe Broken Lizard is teaming up with Counting Crows lead singer Adam Duritz on the big screen comedy "Freeloaders."
Variety says the story revolves around five guys and a girl who live in the lap of luxury in a rock star's mansion. But their sweet situation is threatened when the rock star decides to sell the home.
Dan Rosen wrote the screenplay with the Gigolo Aunts lead singer Dave Gibbs. Rosen is attached to direct, while Duritz is producing.
Broken Lizard is composed of Erik Stolhanske, Paul Soter, Steve Lemme, Kevin Heffernan, Jay Chandrasekhar and producers Richard Perello and Julia Dray.
Shooting is scheduled to begin in mid-January.
HBO has greenlit production on the pilot for a fantasy drama series, "Game of Thrones," based on a book series by George R.R. Martin.
Variety says the pilot for the long-gestating project was written by feature screenwriters David Benioff and D.B. Weiss. Former HBO entertainment president Carolyn Strauss will serve as a co-executive producer, along with Guymon Cassidy, Vincent Gerardis and author Martin.
HBO acquired the TV adaptation rights to Martin's "Songs of Ice and Fire" book series nearly two years ago. The pilot for the HBO show is described as an exploration of "an epic struggle for power set in a vast and violent fantasy kingdom."
Benioff's recent credits include penning the screenplay for X-Men Origins: Wolverine. Weiss recently sold bounty hunter thriller Kashmir to Relativity Media and is writing a prequel to Will Smith's I Am Legend for Warner Bros.
'Y'all gonna get three records from the 'Kast next year,' Big Boi says.
Big Boi is getting his second solo album, Sir Lucious Leftfoot: The Son of Chico Dusty, back on the good foot. The street-embedded member of Outkast says that despite a delay, his record is still coming.
"The South got something to say, and we gonna keep on talking," he told us recently in Atlanta. The roll-out plan for his LP seems to coincide once again with that of his partner, Andre 3000, and the 'Kast have been putting their heads together in preparations.
"Me and 'Dre were on the conference call [recently]," Big explained. "He's working on his album; my album is done. We're gonna wait until the top of the year — January or February — to put it out. Then 'Dre is gonna come hit y'all, and [then] we're gonna do the Outkast album. So y'all gonna get three records from the 'Kast next year."
Besides being holed up in the studio working on these records, Daddy Fat Sacks has also been spending time on the set — he's due to appear on "Law & Order: Special Victims Unit" next Tuesday, November 25. He plays a rapper — Gots Money — who gets greedy. Instead of just relying on the loot he gets as an artist, he decides to get involved with an animal-smuggling ring — when the cops catch him, he turns sides and works undercover for the authorities.
Now, we have heard about the 'Kast pulling a trifecta of albums before, and it hasn't materialized — but it might actually happen this time. Andre 3000 told MTV News' Mixtape Monday in September he had finally started work on his album.
"To be honest, I work best when people doubt me," 'Dre explained. "Our whole Outkast career has been built on people doubting us. [Hip-hop fans] up North hated on us from the get-go. We wouldn't be Outkast if people didn't understand what people would call weird. You know, none of that would've happened. Actually, if you see me, tell me I'm wack. That's the best thing you can do for me. You know, if you want a greater album, say that. Say that!"
Atlantic Records is declining comment on reports that rapper Lupe Fiasco will retire from music after releasing a triple disc album titled "LupEND."
Fiasco made the announcement during a Halloween show in Chicago, explaining that "END" stands for "everywhere," "nowhere" and "down here." No release date has been confirmed.
If true, the news shouldn't come as much of a surprise, considering Fiasco told Billboard as much last December. "'LupEND' -- that's going to be my last album's title," he said. "When you play a videogame, you can only put in three letters for your name and when the game's over, those three letters and 'END' pop up. My next record might be my last one."
The rapper's two albums, 2006's "Lupe Fiasco's Food & Liquor" and last year's high-concept "The Cool," have proven him to be one of the most exciting artists in hip-hop. Sales of "The Cool" have raced by those of the debut 549,000 to 375,000, according to Nielsen SoundScan.
Fiasco has a handful of dates on tap before the end of the year, including Wednesday (Nov. 12) in Los Angeles.
Fox may have granted Family Guy spin-off The Cleveland Show a full-season order, but apparently the tradeoff is a delayed premiere.
The new animated comedy from Seth MacFarlane will not be seen by viewers until fall 2009.
Fox originally announced a late spring premiere for Cleveland at the network's upfront presentation. However, now it seems that network brass was using the announcement as good PR for the new schedule while fully intending to further develop the show before it hit the air.
The first of the 22 episodes ordered into production will air in the 2009-10 television season. The show will also feature Huffington Post co-founder Arianna Huffington voicing a recurring character.
Last we heard, Shane Black’s treatment for a new Lethal Weapon film was shot dead in the water by series star Mel Gibson. IGN was able to talk to producer Joel Silver, who claims that the project might still happen, eventually.
“We talked about it, but it was something that Mel didn’t want to do now,” Silver explained. “It doesn’t mean that he doesn’t want to do it ever, but as of right now, he doesn’t.” … “If we can do it, it would be fun. Shane [Black] had a great take on it, a great idea, a great feeling about it. He did a really complex kind of treatment or outline, very complicated, very good. The idea that they wanted to get it up right away, we couldn’t do that, but we’ll see what happens.”
So, according to Silver, Mel just isn’t interested in returning to the series right now. But series director Richard Donner previously inferred that another installment isn’t likely to happen without his involvement. And from what I understand, Black wanted to helm a film based on the extensive treatment that Silver mentioned above. Shane Black is a great director, and an even better writer. Let Donner produce, but I’d rather see a fifth Lethal Weapon film with Black at the helm.
Last year there was a crazy rumor began to circulate that Will Smith’s son Jaden Smith would star in a remake of The Karate Kid, with Stephen Chow attached to direct and take over the role of Mr. Myiagi.
Sounded horrible then. Still sounds horrible now. And it turns out the crazy rumor wasn’t so crazy.
Variety confirms that Jaden will star in a “refashioned” remake of the 1980’s classic. It gets worse, the film will be set in an exotic locale, with a shoot planned for next year in Beijing. Chris Murphy’s screenplay is said to “borrow elements” from the original film, and is not a strict remake.
Jaden, an avid practitioner of karate, made his big screen debut as Will Smith’s son (big stretch) in Pursuit of Happyness. He can be seen next in The Day the Earth Stood Still. No word on if Stephen Chow will be involved, although I’d expect he might be too busy on The Green Hornet.
Screen Daily reports that MGM is in negotiations to acquire end-of-the-world comedy 2012-ish: The Day the Earth Bent Over, formerly known as "Armageddagain."
Produced by Hadeel Reda, the $25 million film will be directed by Robert Moniot from the screenplay he co-wrote with Travis Oates; it is set to shoot in Louisiana for a March 9 start date.
The plot follows a young scientist who fights to save the planet from a number of catastrophes that threaten mankind not to mention a bumbling president and a manic depressive NASA commander.
"The film is a comedic satire in the vein of 'Airplane!' and 'Young Frankenstein,'" said Reda, "The film has an engaging story and the actors play the comedy straight with sharp dialogue and visual humor like the original classics of the genre."
Knight Rider is changing gears for the back half of the season.
Recently granted a full season by NBC, the drama is now out to finish its freshman year on a high by undergoing a major reboot. Rider is set to dump three regulars — Sydney Tamiia Poitier, Yancey Arias and Bruce Davison — after the initial 13 episodes and will revamp the show to draw more parallels to its '80s original, The Hollywood Reporter reports.
"It's a reboot," Gary Scott Thompson, executive producer/showrunner, said. "We're moving away from the terrorist-of-the-week formula and closer to the original, making it a show about a man and his car going out and helping more regular people, everymen."
Currently registering modest ratings, the "new" (and maybe improved) Rider will kick off as a two-parter in January behind an NFL Sunday night football game in an effort to buoy its ratings. The second part will air the following Wednesday.
Despite the departure of three stars, which Thompson says was only a result of a change in creative direction, there are no plans to add new regulars. Instead, the show will focus on the remaining characters — Mike (Justin Bruening), Sarah (Deanna Russo), Billy (Paul Campbell), Zoe (Smith Cho) and KITT — and will look into stunt guest casting.
Does this mean we should make way for The Hoff?
Michael Rapaport has developed a rapport with CBS.
The actor has signed a deal with the network to create, star in and produce a one-hour drama for the Eye, The Hollywood Reporter reports.
Currently untitled, the project will revolve around the lives of New York social workers, an idea Rapaport has been floating around for four years as he was inspired by a fellow social worker friend.
"It will deal with the ups and downs and the goods and bads of what social workers do," Rapaport, who's appearing on Prison Break this season, said. "It's going to be very touching and emotional, as what these characters do is so tough and gritty, but there also will be a lot of room for humor."
Basketball Diaries writer Bryan Goluboff has been tapped to write and will also serve as executive producer alongside Rapaport, and Denis Leary and Jim Serpico of Apostle Pictures.
Joe Johnston (Jurassic Park III, Hidalgo) has signed a deal to direct First Avenger: Captain America, Marvel Studios' take on its classic comic book character, says The Hollywood Reporter. Marvel's Kevin Feige is producing.
No writers are on board, but the studio, which is hearing pitches, expects to hire shortly.
"This is a guy who designed the vehicles for 'Star Wars,' who storyboarded the convoy action sequence for 'Raiders of the Lost Ark,' " Feige said. "From 'Rocketeer' to 'October Sky' to 'The Wolfman,' you can look at pieces of his movies and see how they lead to this one."
Created in 1941 by Jack Kirby and Joe Simon for Timely Comics, Captain America is the heroic alter ego of Steve Rogers, who is rejected by the Army for being too sickly and undergoes an experiment that takes him to the pinnacle of human form. Paired with an indestructible shield, he became a symbol of the war effort, in and out of comics.
The character disappeared in the 1950s but was revived during the early era of Marvel Comics. He was reintroduced as part of the Avengers, the absence explained by having him being in a state of suspended animation during a war mission until found by the superteam.
First Avenger: Captain America is scheduled for a release on May 6, 2011. It will be a World War II-set movie, and the character will appear in the modern day-set The Avengers.
Last month the Jeff Wells reported that Josh Brolin was in talks to star in Neveldine/Taylor’s big screen adaptation of Jonah Hex. Apparently it isn’t a done deal yet. We hoped to talk to Brolin about the film while he was in town for the premiere of Milk, but our roundtable interview was instantly transformed into a press conference, and the opportunity disappeared.
Thankfully our friends at Collider was able to talk to Josh about the project at the Los Angeles press day, and frankly, it doesn’t sound good. When first asked if he was going to star in Jonah Hex, Brolin quickly replied “Nope.” That “nope” changed to a “don’t know yet”, and Brolin admitted that he hasn’t even met with directors Mark Neveldine and Brian Taylor. Brolin commented on how he has a lot of choices, including an unnamed film by Tony Scott which he really wants to do, but he is having a tough time deciding.
“I think Jonah Hex is a really, really interesting story. I think it would be risky also, which I like, and I don’t know if it’s the thing to do,” Brolin said, later adding that “[Neveldine and Taylor] are good people. They’re very good people.”
Neveldine and Taylor have said that they hope to begin production in March 2009, and that’s only a few months away. Hey, there’s always Thomas Jane.
It was bound to happen eventually. We’ve had spoof movies about horror movies, teen movies, sports movies, disaster movies, epic movies, and now finally Hollywood is making a spoof of the spoof movie genre in David Murphy’s Not Another Not Another Movie.
When a studio head (Chevy Chase) quits his job at a successful Hollywood movie studio, he is replaced by his ex-con brother Michael Madsen and their “equally inept gangster friend” (Vinnie Jones). David Leo Schultz plays a production assistant who is assigned to direct a spoof of the spoof movie genre, and Burt Reynolds plays an actor who is cast as the director of the movie within the movie. Confused? That’s only the beginning.
The film features a hand full of cameos from c-list actors playing themselves spoofing their “memorable” film roles. The list includes the guy who played the villain in Kindergarten Cop and the young African-American Marine on trial in A Few Good Men. Former Howard Stern lackey turned Tonight Show announcer “Stuttering” John Melendez also has a supporting role. Is there anyone outside of the people involved in the production that honestly believe this movie is a good idea?
November kicked off in a big way with three new movies in wide release, but only two doing better than expected. DreamWorks Animation's second movie of the year, the sequel Madagascar: Escape 2 Africa, reunited the voice cast of Ben Stiller, Chris Rock, Jada Pinkett Smith, David Schwimmer, Sacha Baron Cohen and Cedric the Entertainer, with their popular talking animals crash-landing in Central Africa. After grossing over $17 million on Friday, it brought in an estimated $63.5 million in business in more than 4,000 theaters, including a record 130 IMAX theaters. That amount would make it the highest grossing non-"Shrek" movie for the animation studio, making more in three days than the original Madagascar made over the four-day Memorial Day weekend back in 2005. The original Madagascar went on to gross $193 million, so one should expect the holidays should help the sequel gross more than $200 million, although it does have some fierce competition in weeks to come.
Opening in a strong second place, the R-rated buddy comedy Role Models (Universal), starring Paul Rudd and Seann William Scott, brought in an estimated $19.2 million over the weekend in 2,792 theaters, an impressive per-site average of $6,900. It opened better than Rudd's last R-rated comedy Forgetting Sarah Marshall, and based on estimates, it would be Scott's highest non-"American Pie" opening, doing better than his previous Universal buddy comedy The Rundown with The Rock.
Dropping to third place, Disney's High School Musical 3: Senior Year took in another $9.3 million to bring its total to $75.7 million after three weekends.
Clint Eastwood's The Changeling (Universal), starring Angelina Jolie, remained in fourth place for a second weekend in a row with $7.3 million and a total gross of just $20.5 million.
Over the weekend, it ended up ahead of Kevin Smith's Zack and Miri Make a Porno (The Weinstein Co.), starring Seth Rogen and Elizabeth Banks, which dropped from #2 to #5 for a second weekend take of $6.5 million, and a total of just under $21 million.
Former Weinstein Company distribution partners MGM released the R-rated musical road comedy Soul Men (MGM/Dimension), starring Samuel L. Jackson and the late Bernie Mac, but it tanked with just $5.6 million in 2,044 theaters, apparently losing much of the targeted African-American audience to the DreamWorks animated movie.
Saw V (Lionsgate) dropped 57% in its third weekend to #7, adding $4.2 million to its total gross of $52.3 million, putting it just behind the previous installment at the same period of its run.
In eighth place, indie horror-thriller The Haunting of Molly Hartley (Freestyle Releasing) had a strong second weekend, dropping three places but off just 35% from its opening weekend with $3.5 million and $10.2 million total.
The top 10 grossed $125 million up 5% from the same weekend last year when Ridley Scott's American Gangster narrowly defeated DreamWorks' Bee Movie, $43 million to $38 million.
In limited release, the Holocaust drama The Boy in the Striped Pajamas (Miramax) grossed $255 thousand in 17 theaters while Darren Bousman's horror opera Repo! The Genetic Opera grossed $51 thousand in 8 venues.
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